In aviation, icing on an aircraft may occur when the atmospheric conditions lead to the formation of ice on the surfaces or within the engine of the aircraft, which is often undesirable and potentially unsafe for operating the aircraft. FAA regulations define atmospheric envelopes in which icing conditions must be considered for aircraft design and certification. Given that even a small amount of ice accumulation on the leading edge of an aircraft wing can have significant impacts on lift and drag characteristics, the real-time detection of aircraft icing is an important flight deck input needed to ensure safe flight.
Many aircraft include systems to handle these icing conditions, including real-time ice detection systems. These systems vary between aircraft, but many commercial transport-category aircraft utilize ice detection sensors capable of detecting aircraft icing conditions and alerting the flight crew in appropriate situations. Existing ice detection sensors use various technologies, but most aircraft presently use an ice accretion sensor that includes a vibrating probe designed to collect supercooled water droplets on the probe surface. These sensor probes have limitations in terms of slow reaction time, and limited ability to detect all droplet sizes and temperature/liquid water content conditions with certain icing envelopes. These limitations may not only impact the ability of the ice detection system to efficiently operate to handle icing conditions, but may also lead to less-than-optimum fuel consumption.
Therefore, it may be desirable to have a system and method that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as possibly other issues.